Bernard Schoenburg: Column still a privilege after all these years

A few things have happened, politically, in the past 20 years. I’ve been lucky to be able to watch from a very special perch — that of political columnist in a a particularly political town.

A few things have happened, politically, in the past 20 years. I’ve been lucky to be able to watch from a very special perch — that of political columnist in a a particularly political town.

My plan — if my employer and the public is willing — is to stay in this job for quite some time. But given that my first twice-weekly column in The State Journal-Register ran in the summer of 1992 makes me think it might be fun to recount some of the things that have happened over a couple decades.

My first two years at the SJ-R, starting in 1990, were spent covering city government without doing a column. So when I got the new assignment in 1992, it only made sense that names like Mayor OSSIE LANGFELDER and Gov. JIM EDGAR, Comptroller DAWN CLARK NETSCH and U.S. House Republican Leader BOB MICHEL of Peoria were in my first column, on July 19 of that year. The Democratic National Convention had just ended in New York City, and BILL CLINTON was the new nominee.

Later that year, I covered a presidential debate between President GEORGE H.W. BUSH, Clinton and ROSS PEROT at Washington University in St. Louis. A column afterward reflected on my first experience watching surrogates in a nearby gym-turned-pressroom tell reporters how great their candidates did.

“Welcome to ‘Spin Alley,’ where the lights are bright (and) the tongues are quick,” I wrote. Bush spokesman MARLIN FITZWATER said Bush gave “an extraordinarily strong performance,” while U.S. Sen. JOE BIDEN, D-Del., said, “President Bush put a 10-penny nail in his coffin tonight … I don’t think the fella has a clue.”

For better or worse, we all see this kind of thing played out now on the 24/7 cable channels.
In June 1997, it was fanciful, perhaps, but I wondered in a column if Gov. Edgar, who had sought in vain to raise the income tax to provide more money for schools and property tax relief, might have done better legislatively if he did more social things. I noted that he didn’t serve alcohol at the Executive Mansion and had ended a practice of end-of-session parties there.

“And he might remember the kind words he had for Chicago Mayor RICHARD DALEY — not exactly his buddy — when Daley co-hosted a Springfield legislative reception modeled on Taste of Chicago,” I wrote. “Daley was quite welcome, Edgar said, because the Capitol gang loves a ‘free feed.’ This session, members of his own party fed the governor his lunch.”

Jump to 2003, when former Gov. GEORGE RYAN was formally charged with corruption from his days as secretary of state. One of the people I talked to for a column was MARK LIPE, one of the courageous souls who tried to do their jobs in the inspector general’s office, but had been thwarted in the transition from Edgar to Ryan in the secretary of state’s office.

“The office went from a very professional office with integrity at the forefront of our mission to one that was run by incompetents, one that was only concerned about protecting the interests of Ryan and the party,” Lipe said.

Some things have just been fun, like when I quoted some quirky definitions in 1997 from longtime Chicago-based lobbyist RICHARD LOCKHART, an all-around great guy who survived being a prisoner of war in World War II.

“Caucuses: Are meetings not subject to the Open Meetings Act. (Each party holds them) for determining policy, strategy, making announcements, counting votes, delaying activities or griping about the other party, which is probably also holding a caucus and doing the same things,” he wrote.

“Charisma: Refers to candidates who have sex appeal. Due to lack of donors, transplants are not available.”

A much more serious time came with the election of ROD BLAGOJEVICH as governor in 2002. It became virtually a full-time job to check what he said.

“Some people think Gov. Rod Blagojevich is bluffing when he talks about laying off thousands more state workers,” I wrote in late May 2004. “But having watched this governor since he became a serious candidate for the 2002 election, and having been to many of his Springfield appearances — when he takes the time to come to the capital city — I wouldn’t be surprised at anything he does. … He doesn’t seem to act the way most people would.”

Blagojevich continued to generate frustration.

“It would be nice to be able to believe the words that come out of the mouth of the governor of the state of Illinois,” started a Feb. 9, 2006 column. “Unfortunately, evidence continues to mount that that is not always possible.”

Blagojevich, like Ryan, is in prison now.

Being both reporter and columnist is sometimes a balancing act, but columns sometimes grow from stories. Being the only reporter to show up when then-state Sen. BARACK OBAMA announced his backing from the Illinois Federation of Teachers in late 2003 for the 2004 Democratic primary contest for U.S. Senate, I asked what other candidates had been asked about illegal use of drugs, and he told me only about marijuana.

When I later was tipped that he had written a book, “Dreams From My Father,” that described his use of cocaine while a teen in Hawaii, I did a follow-up interview and column. The book was hard to find — it wasn’t re-issued until after his keynote address to the Democratic National Convention in Boston the following summer.

“Obama last week apologized for not telling me earlier about his past as portrayed in the book,” I wrote on Nov. 16, 2003. “He said I had caught him off guard with the drug question and that, at the time, he had not wanted to overshadow his story of the day — his endorsement” by the IFT.

Obviously, the revelation didn’t keep him from higher office.

And when I was sent to cover the Obama inauguration, on a pre-dawn D.C. Metro ride into Washington, I got to meet LEANDREA BRANTLE of Boston, who had with her a 13-year-old son, 11-year-old family friend and 13-year-old nephew, each carrying a picture.

“It turned out they were pictures of people who could only be there in spirit,” I wrote at the time. “The oldest pictures were of ancestors who had been born into slavery. … What a touching moment.”

Politics aside, my years as a columnist also covered the period when I lost both of my parents. My mother, EDITH, who died in 2008, was a refugee from Austria in World War II who ended up speaking perfect English and was interested in just about everything. My father, BILL, who died a year ago, was a Chicago native who made a good life for his family when he switched careers at midlife to sell insurance. Having this column as a forum to tell some history of each was a tremendous privilege.

It’s still amazing to me to see a newspaper come together each day with the help of so many talented people — fewer today, unfortunately, than in the past.

And it is also a tremendous privilege to have a job that lets me scan the scene in Springfield and Illinois, talk to interesting and involved people — elected or not — from all parties along the way, ask questions when necessary, and get the truth out there, be it in the newspaper, on the Web, and yes, via Twitter.

Thanks so much for reading — even if it’s on your phone.

Bernard Schoenburg is political columnist for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached at 788-1540 or follow him via twitter.com/bschoenburg. His email address is
bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com.

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